Current Copyright Law … Is It Working?

Hi everyone!

Here is my term project on the effectiveness of copyright law – enjoy!

Some background:

A while back we discussed Jessica Silbey’s book The Eureka Method and her finding that current copyright law does not really reflect how artists work.

When reading her book, I found that it focused heavily on artists who were intrinsically motivated to create. They created art because they loved doing it or because they loved being in creative environments.

The cynic in me wondered if the reason that copyright law didn’t reflect how Silbey’s interviewees really worked was because it was created for people who are motivated by the ability to make money off of their work.

To explore this further, I interviewed Julian Ing, the founder of Vancouver-based social gaming company, Eruptive Games (which has since been sold). I knew that Julian had started the company, not because he was passionate about creating games, but because he saw an opportunity to make money. I wanted to know if copyright law had complimented his process of building a creative company, or if he too experienced a disconnect between the law and the creative process.

This endeavour also gave me some insight into the nature Canadian copyright law in particular.

If you’re curious about my findings, you can find my project attached here: Jessica’s Presentation

Other Links:

Hyperlinked are the intro of Jessica Silbey’s book and the video from my interview with Julian to give my presentation some more context

If you have any issues with the links please let me know via Teams.

Thanks for tuning in!